As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians.
I too have a photograph of my Great Grandfather in a group photo with the Italian 32nd regiment of WW1. Does anyone know anything about the 32nd regiment and what they did?
My mom and dad came from two very different classes of Italian society. Dad's mom came from a very aristocrat family and mom's came from farmers and agricultural workers. When my mom's parents came to the US, they left their oldest son Giovanni in the care of my maternal grandmother's parents. I hea...